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In order not to mutilate the Torah

· Let us all approach the Scriptures
·

April 1, 2016

For
centuries, in countries in which culture, Christian or Muslim, left its mark on
the computation of time, on the landscape, on the customs and on daily existence,
the uninterrupted study (limmud) of the Torah has been the way par
excellence for the continuity of Jewish life. Indeed the Jews, more than
Christians and Muslims, had a vital need to explore their texts, to interpret
them and to pass them on; even if their hosts – often their persecutors – knew
nothing of the Jewish spiritual life or denied it violently, claiming to reduce
it to a dead or obsolete “letter”.

Far from
being a closed world off limits, the written text of the Torah was – and still is
– inseparable from the oral Torah (Torah shebealpeh), namely from the
Torah “that is on the lips” of those who study it and interpret it in a new
way. The Talmud, the exegesis of the Midrash and the philosophical and mystical
commentaries constitute the vast wealth of the oral Torah. The latter has
itself become an immense library, in Hebrew and in Aramaic and then also in
other languages. Without it, Judaism would lose its meaning and its power.

This task
is fundamental and this life in harmony with study is almost always a
prerogative of men: women have had scant access to it. And all this has the
twofold pretext that study was a precept (mitzvah) only for men, and
that women were not capable of it (a misogynist argument), and that women had a
more direct access to true piety (an adulatory argument). Thus imprisoning the
female mind in a nature which barred it from the process of study meant that
women, until a short time ago, were almost always excluded. In a religion in
which study constitutes an important axis, this has also meant their
subordination to those who studied, interpreted and legislated in every sphere.
Of course, there are women who accept this traditional division of roles and
submit to the male words that enjoin them to support their husband, to bring up
their children and indeed to work to maintain the family so that the men can
devote themselves to study. However, it also happens – and ever more frequently
– that they refuse to do so.

The desire
to share the world of study with men is not after all merely a question of
personal dignity, however legitimate it may be, and it is even more important
for women who, in the democratic countries, are citizens equal to men and have
often received an education in the secular subjects which is incompatible with
a condition of minority in their religion. However, there is another reason.

If it is
true that the renewal of the meaning of the verses of the Torah depends on the
questions that human beings ask of them, it is likewise true that these questions
do not stem from nothing. They come from the difficulties, not only
intellectual, encountered by the readers, but also from the trials (suffering,
bereavement, misfortunes) and joys (love, birth, success) that the readers are
passing through, which they feel and express. And women – as much as men but
also in a different way – experience all this.

To wish to
distance women from the world of study is therefore to forbid the men who
belong to this world to listen to their questions, those which make it possible
to explain the meaning of the verses differently. This presupposes that the
exchange among men suffices and that they have nothing to learn from female
interpretations, which leads to an impoverishment of the oral Torah, indeed to
its mutilation and to a lack of interest in its regard. This observation is
even more important since young men and women who are educated but know the
religious texts only through hearsay or in the form of sclerotic proposals no
longer think of turning to them to give their lives some meaning.

Failing to
recognize the contribution of women to study means forgetting that the Torah on
Mount Sinai was given to all. Where women are integrated into the world of
study (Israel, the United States, Europe) the situation did not of course
change instantly, as if by magic, but in any case the way was opened to an
indispensable dynamism. In addition, that men should learn in turn to listen to
the words of women, not as something that would make them inferior but as
something that would set them face to face with women, also means contributing
to the advent of peace. No peace will be possible among human beings for as
long as half of humanity is discredited by men and forced to submit to their
words.

Miriam,
Moses and Aaron were the three guides of the Jews in the desert (cf. Micah 6:4). Miriam had to watch over
the living water of the well destined to quench their thirst. The living water,
however, is associated with the words of the Torah. Thus forgetting Miriam’s
well means making men thirsty too, although they maintain the contrary. The taam, (taste, savour, meaning) of that
water is indispensable to every man and to every woman.